Every once in a while my XM Radio in my Blazer gets turned on for free and I love it b/c I get to listen to sports talk radio. Obviously these people have to have something to talk about 24/7 so with the NBA Playoffs going on they all talk about LeBron and where he ranks all-time, and I heard a guy say he can't even put LeBron in the same category as MJ, this got me thinking, has MJ actually become overrated? Is that possible, the guy ESPN named the best athlete of the 1900's, arguably the greatest basketball player ever, has he actually become overrated. I think he has, and in fact I think a few guys have become overrated after their careers and few are underrated, I'm going to make a little list here. A few guys who I think we either speak to high of, or we forgot about them.
Michael Jordan overrated, the guy is the greatest ever, but this notion that we can't compare anyone to him has gotten a little out of hand. When he was in the twilight of his career and a little after the media wanted to proclaim the next Jordan. I can name a list of guys but Harold Miner was one for sure, in fact they called him "Baby Jordan," the 2 closest guys I can think of are Kobe and LeBron. Kobe is the pure scorer who's won lots of championships and LeBron is a physical specimen who has a rounder game. Now I don't want speak bad about Jordan but this notion that we can't compare people to him is absurd, it's sports it's all we do. We compare today's players with yesterday's players and vice versa, how would this guy do against this guy. Are LeBron and MJ the same player, no. LeBron is a much better defender and facilitator where MJ had the killer instinct and had incredible will to NOT lose. There is a thing about MJ though, Steve Kerr and John Paxson both hit game winners for the Bulls that won championships. So the notion that MJ is the ultimate closer and always took the final shot is bull. So I guess I'm trying to say we can compare guys to Jordan doesn't mean their better than him, and sometimes we forget Jordan's game had flaws but since we only remember the greatness we forget them. He didn't win a championship every year he was in the league people.
Barry Sanders underrated, this may seem weird especially since he just got named to the Madden cover by a fan vote. I think though that as we get farther away from his career and more into the fantasy era we forget Barry's greatness. The guy was a human video game, by far the best RB in the league and maybe the best of all time close to Jim Brown in many peoples eyes. In the days of LaDanian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson, and Arian Foster we sometimes forget how great Barry Sanders was. Barry has some of the best runs of all time and I hope time makes him greater not worse in our eyes.
Derek Jeter overrated, I don't want to take anything away from Jeter but if he's considered a winner and all that crap than we should look at how he got his championships. There is also talk that he is one of the 5 greatest Yankees of all-time, wow the greatest organization is all of sports and this guy is one of the 5 best, he's not even one of the 5 best Shortstops of all time so how is he one of the greatest in his organization that has some of the greatest at their positions. He's never won the MVP, in all of his championships he only has one World Series MVP. How is that all-time Yankee great, he's not better than Babe, Mantle, DiMaggio, Gehrig, or even Reggie Jackson in my eyes. The guy is a great player but he's never been the best Shortstop in the game let alone one of the best 5 players in Yankee history.
The entire 1st round draft class of 1983 underrated, I watched ESPN's 30 for 30 about Marino and Elway and during that they talked about the guys drafted in that 1st round, mainly saying who passed on Marino as he fell into the 2nd to last pick in the 1st round. Growing up we heard about the great QB class of '83, 3 Hall of Famers in Elway, Marino, and Jim Kelly, but as good as those guys were there were plenty of studs taken that weren't QB's. There are 3 other Hall of Famers, Eric Dickerson, Bruce Mathews, and Darrell Green. A couple of key pieces to Super Bowl winners, Jim Covert and Willie Gault for the Bears, Jim Jeffcoat with Dallas, and Terry Kinard with the Giants. The QB's in that draft were a combined 2-9 in Super Bowls, with Kelly losing 4, Elway winning 2 but losing 3, Marino losing 1, and Tony Eason losing 1 with New England. Sounds like a pretty loaded 1st round to me, 6 of the 28 are in the HOF, just a little under a quarter. Don't sleep on the rest of this draft either Richard Dent went in the 8th to Chicago, and Roger Craig, Dave Duerson, Henry Ellard, Darryl Talley, Jesse Sapolu, and Charles Mann all were taken after the 1st. In fact just looking the Bears built half their 85 championship with this draft. The Redskins didn't do too bad either.
The 90's Atlanta Braves overrated, they call them the team of the 90's sometimes, is 1 championship all it takes to be the team of a decade? The Braves were good, but stop it, they weren't the best team of the decade in fact they might be the biggest disappointment of the decade. They had Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine yet only won one. I know a lot of people want to crown them all these great pitchers but they should all have more than 1 ring.
Joe Montana overrated, I know I called Joe the greatest QB of all time on this blog a few weeks ago. I though realize sometimes I overrate people and I'm willing to admit it. I overrate Joe Montana simply b/c he had the greatest WR of all-time. Since he had Rice he got a lot of extra yards that Rice made after the catch. I guess I'm trying to say it's not to hard to play QB when your throwing to the greatest of all time. That being said I still think Montana is the best ever.
Terrell Owens and Randy Moss underrated, these guys are 2 of the best ever yet nobody wants to give them credit because they had bad attitudes. Owens and Moss dominated the game for a decade like no other WR's before them had, even Rice. They are both freakish athletes with size, speed, hands, and jumping ability. Their off field problems stack up on them so most of us don't want to give them credit, but if you and me were picking teams I would take these two at WR.
Well that's all for this week, got a new computer so hopefully the posts will be back to weekly. Follow me on twitter @derekbredeson.
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